[Please use the list of articles at the top of the email to
find what is of interest to you. We do not expect you to be interested in
everything. Depending on your email programme and computer settings these
headings may also give you a link to jump directly to the story of interest.]

REDWatch has organised a Candidates Forum for the federal
seat of Sydney
with a special focus on Housing. Redfern Waterloo has large quantities of public
housing and the state government plans to double the area’s population while
keeping the same number of public tenants. At the same time the RWA is
exploring options for affordable housing in the area. The federal government
provides funding for public housing through the Federal State Housing Agreement
which comes up for renewal next year. Many statements about the affordability
of housing in the private market have also been made during the federal election.
This forum will be an opportunity not only to meet the candidates, but also to
hear them address a policy area with a major impact on Redfern Waterloo; whether
your interest is public, private or affordable housing.

REDWatch has arranged for Nick Warren, a Senior Policy
Officer at Shelter NSW to provide an introduction to the issue and then we will
hear from the candidates followed by an opportunity to ask the candidates
questions. Refreshments will be provided and the Forum will be held at 6.30 on
Monday 12th November at Redfern
Town Hall, Pitt Street,
Redfern. You can download a leaflet from the REDWatch website to help us
advertise the Forum here (188Kb
PDF). For more information phone 0416 410 374.

Following the RWA’s newsletter article that the RWA and
DoH are Planning
for public housing renewal, we have heard of both public tenants and
local business people who are making submissions to the RWA and the DoH about
what they think should be included in the plans being developed for the next
part of RWA’s Built Environment Plan. The exhibition phase of the Built
Environment Plan phase 2 proposals will probably only happen again after the
proposals have been signed off by cabinet. So if you have something to say we think
you should consider putting your comments in writing to the RWA and the DoH now
rather than just waiting until the plans are exhibited after the plans have
been put together and approved by cabinet.

Apart from the to-ing and fro-ing in the federal election
there have been a few other articles on housing over the last few weeks which
might be of interest to people in Redfern Waterloo. Of particular interest was Call for public housing
review about the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute’s report
into the decline of public housing. John
Hall one of the authors made the rather obvious, but often overlooked point
that “public housing is the bedrock of affordable housing”. The report calls
for a mix of public tenants rather than just those with the highest needs. Flight of vital workers spurs
cheap rent plan looks at steps being taken by some councils to put
affordable housing policies in place while Cheap housing quota off the
boil looks at the NSW government backing away from affordable housing.

In Redeveloped public housing
estate not so public Brian Robins reports that the cost of
redeveloping the Bonnyrigg public housing estate has blown out from an
estimated $500 million to $730 million and just 30 per cent of the housing will
be public. Bonnyrigg is the first public private redevelopment of public
housing and it is expected to be a template for other areas.

And finally we can not let Garry
Mallard’s comments on "Public
Housing not a Right" says Labor (!) Minister go past
without comment. Thankfully the desperate Houso blog has also picked up Garry’s
Tenant Support Network comments so we can link to there rather than having to
reproduce the full comment here. Garry reminds the Minister and others that the
human right to housing is explicitly set out in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and other international human rights treaties and Declarations – some of
which he goes on to list. If you have an interest in housing Garry at The National Tenant
Support Network operates an email service that will deliver free to your
inbox articles from around Australia
and New Zealand
on Housing. You can contact him on TSN@thenexus.org.au ph:(02) 6492
0355 Fax: (02) 6492 3749.

On Wednesday 24th October the Aboriginal
Housing Company submitted its Concept Plan for the Pemulwuy Project to the
Department of Planning. The Concept Plan will now be assessed by the department
to see if it meets the Director General’s Requirements. If it is passes its test of adequacy it
should go up on the Department’s website for community consultation in the next
few weeks. The project is the culmination of seven years of consultation
with the Redfern community, government and the business sector. “With 62 new
houses, a sport centre, retail, commercial and cultural facilities for the
Block, the plan is to provide the opportunities for a strong and safe community
with an emphasis on homeownership, business enterprise and cultural tourism”,
said the Pemulwuy Project’s internationally renowned architect Peter Lonergan.

Redfern Waterloo Street Team Evaluation Report Surfaces

There have been many attempts to gain access to the
Redfern Waterloo Street Team (RWST) Evaluation over the last couple of years.
The Street Team was held up as “a new and innovative approach to addressing the
issues of children and young people” in the government’s submission to the
Redfern Waterloo Inquiry in April 2004. In 2005 the programme was evaluated and
closed down but the proposals for youth services in the RWA Human Services Plan
were said to be based on what had been learnt from the Street Team, but only
the last chapter of the draft evaluation report was ever released. REDWatch
requested the full report and was told we would have to make an FOI submission
which was subsequently turned down on the grounds that the documents related to
cabinet decisions. The upper house in NSW also called for the documents on a Call
for Papers (twice) but again the documents were declined to the NSW upper
house. On October 30th 2007 the Sydney Morning Herald website
carried the story Redfern plan backfires:
report which reveals some of the information that the government was trying
to keep out of the public eye. The article by Sunanda
Creagh reads:

“Redfern plan
backfires: report

A $2 million State Government program for
disadvantaged Redfern youth actually encouraged children to stay out on the
street late at night and exacerbated tensions with local police, a secret
report reveals.

The Government has gone to great lengths to
hide the embarrassing review of the Redfern
Waterloo Street Team - a group of welfare workers
parachuted into the suburb in late 2003 - by refusing to release the report
under freedom of information laws.

The secret report slams the Government for
establishing the street team "as a result of a cabinet minute, rather than
through a planned response ... by determining the 'solution' to a perceived
problem at a senior level, those charged with responsibility for implementing
the model were constrained in their ability to develop a more flexible response
to actual needs."

The street team, made up of workers from the
Central Sydney Area Health Service, the Department of Community Services and
non-government organisations, conducted late night walks to encourage young
people to go home and referred cases to social services for follow up.

A key program goal - guiding children on the
street late at night home - ended up backfiring, with "staff suspecting
they were encouraging many young people to be out later on the streets as they
knew they could get a lift home from the [Redfern Waterloo Street Team]".

The review found administration took up too
much time and resources and the street team worsened community relations with
local police.

Helen Campbell from
the Redfern Legal Centre said the findings did not surprise her.

"If they found you on the street at 11
at night, you would get a pizza and a free trip home. Why wouldn't you stay out
later?" she said. "There is still no youth refuge in Redfern. If a
kid is out at night, one of the question you have to ask is, is it safe at
home?"

Geoff Turnbull from the REDwatch community
group warned that despite its failure, the Government had not learned any
lessons from the street team experiment.

"If they had started to change the way
they operated in the area, I wouldn't be as concerned. But decisions continue
to be made at a cabinet level and implemented without working with what is
already happening in Redfern and Waterloo," he said.

"The [Government's Redfern-Waterloo]
Human Services Plan says that the stuff they are doing in terms of youth
services is based on what they have learned out of the street team. That was
the reason we wanted to see the evaluation. The future of what happens to
services here is based on the street team."

A spokeswoman for the Minister for
Redfern-Waterloo, Frank Sartor, said
the minister dissolved the project shortly after inheriting it in 2005 and
reallocated funding to other community projects.

The Yaama Dhiyaan indigenous training
college received $750,000, $500,000 went to a new Police Citizens Youth Club at
the redeveloped former Redfern Public School, and leftover funds were diverted
to South Sydney Youth Service and the Fact Tree
youth service.”

We think it is time for the RWA to come clean and to
release the final Redfern Waterloo Street Team Evaluation Report publicly so
all human service providers, especially the youth services that the RWA Human Services
Plan wants to see re-organised, have access to the report. Government has been
quick to criticise non-government organisations’ capacity and programmes based on
consultant’s evaluations and yet one of the projects trumpeted by government to
be at the cutting edge of their involvement in Redfern Waterloo turns out to
have been an ill-advised cabinet intervention which made things worse. With so
many documents kept from public view on the grounds of ‘cabinet in confidence’
as the NSW cabinet lays down its plan for Redfern Waterloo, those who live and
work in the area are now even more entitled to wonder if what is going on always
matches the RWA and government spin.

Minister Sartor and RWA CEO Robert
Domm appeared before NSW Parliament’s General Purpose
Standing Committee No 4 for “Estimates Hearings”. Those that follow Redfern
Waterloo Issues closely will find the transcript of Minister Sartor
& the RWA CEO’s Answers at Estimates Hearing – 15 October 2007 of
considerable interest as we do not otherwise get a chance to hear what our
Minister thinks about the issues of the area firsthand away from the crafted
spin. The responses cover how the Minister and the RWA CEO see progress
in Redfern Waterloo, the CUB voluntary planning agreements, Redfern railway station,
public housing redevelopment and the RWA’s involvement in human services and
Aboriginal employment. We have given you a few quotes below but to see who said
what you will need to read the uncorrected transcript:

“It will be called the National Indigenous
Development Centre and will provide local families with learning, recreational
and employment opportunities.

RailCorp and the Redfern-Waterloo Authority
have participated in a joint concept study and that is as far as the work has
reached on Redfern station. A number of options have come out of that study
that need to be considered by Cabinet. Two of those options would involve a
degree of private development alongside the railway station. [The plans will be
made public] After they have been to Cabinet and there is a Cabinet decision
that allows that to be done.

[On funding of public housing redevelopment]
At this stage we are operating on the premise that there is no new government
funding. We are looking at opportunities for upgrading existing high-rise
buildings and looking at low-rise estates to see what development potential
there is to be retained.

[On spending-client ratio of the programs
that are funded] The Redfern-Waterloo Authority is not a service provider,
therefore, those community services are provided by other government agencies.
I cannot answer that question.

[On future co-ordination of human services] There
is a bit of transitionary money. My understanding is that the issue was to do
with research. The issue really is to make sure that the targeting of the $30
million to $40 million per annum spend of funds by existing government agencies
is improved. That was the only issue I am aware of there.

[On
per capita funding spent on Aboriginal people] Our main emphasis in Redfern is
opportunities for people, rather than cash handouts. We do not do cash
handouts.

[On work readiness post CDEP] The CDEP is a
Commonwealth Government funded project, and the Redfern Aboriginal Corporation
derives a lot of its funding from that project. So it seems to have fallen over
as a result of that program being closed down. It has got nothing to do with
Redfern Waterloo or the State Government.”

Commercial and retail
tenants are about to occupy the remainder of the CarriageWorks
building according to an article in The Australian Financial Review Art mover set to shake up
Sydney October 29th 2007. In part the article says:

“Mrs Schwartz, who has an
eponymous gallery in Melbourne's Flinders Lane, will be an anchor tenant in a
new commercial and retail area adjacent to CarriageWork's cavernous performance
spaces. It is not known if she has received reduced rent or other financial
incentives from the NSW government, which last year opened the $49 million
contemporary performance space in the old Eveleigh rail yards. Mrs Schwartz
said yesterday that she would not talk about her expansion until later this
week.

It is hoped that
the second stage of the CarriageWorks
development, the commercial and retail area in which Mrs Schwartz's gallery
will sit, will help attract visitors to the cultural precinct.”

The Eveleigh Railyards were nominated by the National
Trust of NSW for the national list of Australia’s heritage at risk sites.
In Tasmania,
on Saturday 3rd November 2007, the country’s top ten at risk sites
were announced and the final list included Eveleigh Railyards as well as Garden
Island Hammerhead crane. The Ku-ring-gai Blue Gum missed on inclusion in the
top ten after receiving a pledge from the Federal Government to help preserve
the area. The “Our heritage at Risk website” www.heritageatrisk.org.au contains
details of all the nominations including Eveleigh
Railway Workshops, Redfern, New South Wales. The New South Wales Media
Release (50Kb PDF) of the announcement said of
Eveleigh:

“The Eveleigh Railway Workshops are some of
the finest historic railway workshops in the world, containing one of the most
complete late 19th century and early 20th century forge installations, and an
excellent collection of cranes and power systems.

Various buildings within the facility have
already been redeveloped and adapted to a range of non- railway uses but
several significant buildings have been rezoned for multi-storey development.

Government policy at this stage appears
primarily directed towards the commercial redevelopment of this historic site,
with rail heritage consigned to remote facilities, unlikely to have the resources
to properly present and conserve these historic trains.”

REDWatch and The Friends of Eveleigh continue to campaign
to try and retain the Large as a functioning heritage rail workshop to service
heritage groups from around the state and as a Sydney base for heritage rail
tourism. With the RWA planning to sell the bulk of the North Eveleigh Railway
yards with a concept plan in 2008 and occupants of the Large being told they
could continue to use the building until 2008 there is little time to change
the mind of the Office of Rail Heritage and the NSW Government about the need
to preserve at least part of the Eveleigh Rail yards as functioning rail
heritage.

If you support the
vision for the Large outlined by the Friends of Eveleigh in Friends
of Eveleigh’s Concept Plan (PDF 974 Kb) then please write in support
of the Large being retained in active rail heritage use rather than being
classed as being surplus to RailCorp’s heritage rail requirements and the
building being passed to the RWA to become part of the Australian Technology
Park. We suggest you write or contact the Office of Rail Heritage with copies
to the ministers involved with the future of the LES.

In other Railway / Eveleigh related news we hear that the
major termite infestation in Mortuary station includes the main beam so don’t
book to go there in a hurry – it is expected to take up to 12 months to fix the
problem. We have not been able to find out if this will slow down the Mortuary
stations proposed use as a city coaling, watering, de-ashing and layover spot
for heritage rail in the absence of Eveleigh’s LES. On the two commissioner’s
cars we can advise that they have not yet been returned to their heritage
register home at the LES but they are under cover at Thirlmere. Some details on
the Concept Plan for the new work at Thirlmere are on the RTM site here...
We hear that before any sod has been turned that the project is already over
budget by $3 million. Incidentally $3 million over the next five years is the
price tag for ensuring the adequacy of the Large Erecting Shed in Eveleigh to
continue its heritage rail activities – not much really to keep active rail
heritage functioning at Eveleigh.

The Concept Plan approval documents for the RWA’s proposed
redevelopment of Rachael Forster hospital are now up on the Department of
Planning’s website and these are the links to the Director-General's
Assessment Report (706 Kb PDF) and notice
of approval (124 KB PDF) of the concept plan. The former hospital site with
the approved concept plan is now up for sale by tender and the proceeds are to
go to develop the new community health centre in the former Redfern Court House
and former police station. The site is being marketed by Savills Australia and
the listing can be seen at Rachael
Forster Listing. The listing says:

“Concept Plan Approved for Residential
Development for up to 150 units. Large regular shaped site of approximately
6,923m2 within a well established residential sector in a fast growing suburb
on the fringe of Sydney’s
CBD. The site is Concept Plan approved for a residential development of up to
150units and 160car spaces with an allowable floor space of 13,866m2. The Plan
also provides for a publicly accessible park of approximately 1,100m2 off Pitt Street.

The Department of Planning have now posted the approval
documents for the ILC’s Concept Plan for the former Redfern School
site. These can be downloaded from the DoP Notices
of Determination website or from these links Director-General's
Assessment Report (2 MB PDF) and notice
of approval (87 KB PDF). The Minister’s approval makes a provision for
contribution plan payments - “$226,383 is to be paid to the
Redfern-Waterloo Authority towards the provision of affordable housing”
and for a further “$598,749.52 (2% of the proposed cost of development) is to be paid to
the Redfern-Waterloo Authority, unless agreement is reached in accordance with
Clause 16 of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority Contributions Plan”. The
ILC is of the view that its contribution to the community through the provision
of the PCYC on the site should allow for an exemption under the Contributions
Plan and discussions will continue.

The National Indigenous Development Centre issued the
following statement on 22 October 2007 concerning the next steps for the site:

“The project
in brief

The National Indigenous Development Centre
is a project of the Indigenous Land Corporation, a Federal Statutory Authority.
The vision for the Centre is as a facility to nurture sporting excellence and
personal and leadership development among Australia’s Indigenous community.
The Centre will provide sporting and educational facilities to be used by
Indigenous groups from across the country. Many of the facilities will be
available to the local community on a user pays basis.

National
Indigenous Development Centre Approval and Timetable

The Indigenous Land Corporation welcomes the
decision of the Minister for Planning to approve the development of the
National Indigenous Development Centre on the site of the old Redfern Public School.
The Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) is now finalising the tender documents to
be used to select a list of builders. The call for tenders will go out shortly.
The selection process will take a number of months and it is likely that a
builder will be signed up in the first quarter of 2008. Construction is likely
to commence in the second quarter of 2008, with an approximate construction
program of 18 months.

Conditions

The Minister for Planning attached a number
of conditions to the project approval, including:

*
An experienced conservation architect must be engaged in the design,
development and construction of existing heritage buildings on site.

*
Alterations, demolition and new penetrations to existing heritage-listed
buildings are to be kept at a minimum.

*
A test excavation must be undertaken on the site by a qualified archaeologist
prior to construction with respect to Aboriginal and European heritage.

Community
Engagement

ILC will continue to ensure that the local
community is kept informed over coming months. Updates will be emailed and
posted out on a regular basis, and the on-site signage will be kept up to date
with latest news.

Shortly before construction starts ILC will
hold an open house information event on site. This will be attended by the project
team, including representatives
from the ILC and the builder, and will be an opportunity for the local
community to learn about how the Centre will look, how it will be used and
managed, the range of facilities available for community use, and how the
construction is to be conducted. It will also provide an opportunity for questions
and feedback from the community. This event will be open to everyone with an
interest in the project. Further details will be provided closer to the event.

If you have questions or would like
additional information about the NIDC, please contact Stuart
Waters at Twyford Consulting at the details listed below.

Frasers have posted the Display
Boards from Community Consultation and for those that could
not attend the exhibition you can now look at the display boards on line and
use the Frasers
feedback web page to provide your comments. Frasers is currently working with the ideas
raised through the sessions to see how these issues can be addressed in their
planning and design for the project. In an email out to their contact
list Frasers said the community asked about a range of issues including:

Sustainability,
particularly how we will seek to minimise energy, water consumption and
car usage and encourage walking and cycling

Managing
traffic flow into, out of and around the site

The design of
buildings and open spaces and how you can be involved in this

How we intend
to work cooperatively with our immediate neighbours during site clearing
and recycling.

Following the exhibition Frasers’ Chief Operating Officer,
Nicholas Wolf, accepted an invitation from Chippendale groups to walk the area
with them and to listen to their concerns. Frasers has also made an application
to the City of Sydney
for Owners
Consent for parcels of Council land which are critical for the creation of the
public park. There was some confusion about Frasers Design competition for the
site following the item CUB
Owners Seek Consent for Park Works in Clovers eNEWS of 26th October
2007 but the situation was clarified the following week in Frasers
Clarifies CUB Design Excellence Process. Frasers subsequently have provided
the following details for a design workshop to be held on Saturday 17 November:

“Frasers Property is holding a
design workshop for key elements of the Frasers Broadway site. We are
interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas on one of Sydney’s most significant urban renewal
projects. The workshop will provide an opportunity to work alongside some of
the key personnel who will be developing plans for the site. Your input will
help inform the briefs for the architectural and design team.

The workshop will be held
Saturday 17 November from 11.00 am – 4.00 pm on the Broadway site in the Administration Building. Entrance will be via the
security gate near the Clare
Hotel.

Further information on this event
and the detailed program will be provided shortly via an email update. If you
would like any further information please email back or call Caline at Elton
Consulting on 9387 2600. The workshop is being held in a heritage building please
let us know in advance if you have any special access or mobility requirements.”

On Tuesday 16 October 2007 Frasers lodged their demolition
application with the Department of Planning following receipt of the Director-General
requirements for Environmental Assessment (806 KB PDF). Their application
is currently
undergoing a test of adequacy by the DoP and once it has been assessed by the
DoP, Frasers will make it available on the Frasers Broadway website and alert their
email list subscribers. The Preliminary
assessment (592 KB PDF) in the meantime will provide some indication of
what is proposed.

Frasers are in the process of updating their website to
include all the relevant documents which will make the documents easier for the
local community to access. At the time of this update going out the Concept
modification (MP 06_0171 MOD 1) documents
Modification
request (9 July 2007) (77KB PDF), Director-General's
Assessment Report (37KB PDF), modification
approval (100KB PDF) and consolidated
approval (42KB PDF) have not been added to the Frasers website so we are
including the links here in the short term. We have bought this to Frasers’
attention.

Council has this week advertised the
next DA for 261-265 Chalmers Street
REDFERN NSW 2016for “a 64
seat restaurant, a lounge and gaming area, two smokers terraces fronting Douglas Street, and
ancillary office space at level 1 of the South Sydney Leagues Club. The proposed
hours of operation are 10:00am to 12 midnight Sundays to Wednesdays and 10:00am
to 2:00am the following day Thursdays to Saturdays. The proposed smokers
terraces have a maximum capacity of 6 patrons with hours of operation 12
midnight, 7 days per week.”

You may recall earlier in the year that we campaigned for
the reinstatement of Local Action Plan Grants in the City of Sydney Budget. Enough money was reinstated to
run some trial projects in 2007-8. The CoS has
supplied the following information about the LAP Matching Grants Programme.

“The City of Sydney is calling for
expressions of interest from community based organisations, committees and
groups for applications for funding from the City’s Local Action Plans Matching
Grants Program. Submissions close Friday 14 December 2007. The Local Action
Plan Matching Grants Program is for small grants (in-cash/in-kind) from the
City of Sydney
of up to $5,000. It is envisaged that Projects receiving funding will commence
between March 2008 – June 2008. Application & Guidelines Matching Grant Program > Application & Guidelines |
MS Word 8Mb

The City of Sydney’s Local Action Plans
Matching Grants Program has been established in response to the outcomes of the
Local
Action Plan Strategy and provides a mechanism for community engagement,
skills development, capacity building and shared funding arrangements for the
delivery of appropriate programs. The aim of the Matching Grants Program is to
support identified community projects or objectives in the Local Actions Plans
by matching with City Resources what is raised in-cash or in-kind by the community. Through supporting participative community
projects the Program encourages the generation of social capital to assist in
developing stronger communities.

The significant difference between general
grants or sponsorships and a matching grants model is the intent to support
projects that involved genuine community participation. With the community involved in projects and
outcomes, relationships develop within the community and between the City. By
'matching' what the community contributes to the project the City is building
and strengthening partnerships between the City and the community, supporting
projects identified by the community and building a sense of community as
people work together on the project. Community contributions recognised include:

·
In-kind contributions such as donated
supplies, materials or services;

·
volunteering time such as labour, set up
& pack down, and meeting time to identify, plan and implement projects;

·
direct cash input to the project (donations,
income generated)

The City contribution will match the
community contribution to projects in-cash or in-kind. In-kind contributions from the City are
defined as those things which would normally be charged for but are provided at
a reduced rate or free of charge. This
may include park hire, venue hire, banner pole hire. The City may contribute cash to match
community in-kind contributions i.e. a project involving a community in-kind
contribution for donated supplies, labour and volunteer hours to coordinate the
project estimated at $2,500 could receive a cash grant of $2500 from the City
for the equipment and specialist staff required for the project.”

Jobs Available at The Settlement – 16th
November 2007

The Settlement
Neighbourhood Centre that services many in the Redfern Waterloo Aboriginal
Community has two full-time Youth Worker jobs available in Redfern. Depending
on qualifications and experience the jobs are SACS Grades 3-4 and include:

·
Youth
Project: - an energetic team player
to run and create programs for local young people is needed.

Koorikuto will be fundraising for The
Settlement & Women's Reconciliation Network with a show,
‘Aunty Ali Golding and the Jarjums’, Saturday 10th November – 8pm til late at
Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway The Opening Ceremony by Aunty Ali at 8pm, on the Garden Stage will feature dance
performances, Dreamtime story telling, Indigenous short films and VJ DAMAGE. As
well there will be other artists on two more stages. $15 before 9pm - $20 after
9pm.

Local businesses may benefit from free 60 minute Business
Crime Prevention Forums presented by NSW Police, NRMA Business Insurance and
the City of Sydney.
Topics to be covered include: Crime prevention strategies for businesses;
Designing a safer work place; Crime scene responsibilities; Common risks and
how to minimise them; Fraud and credit card crime. Download the form to
register now for a workshop that could assist with putting crime out of
business - your business. Business Crime Prevention Forum - Registration Form | PDF 1.3Mb. The details of the forums are:

Over the past couple of months young people from The Settlement have been involved in a Karate
program each Monday night. On Saturday 17th November the NSW
Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, the Seido Kazoku Dojo and The Settlement would like to invite you to join us
at 11am at The Settlement Neighborhood Centre, 17 Edward St, Darlington for the first Aboriginal Karate Program
Grading. There will also be some special black belt demonstrations, followed by
a sausage sizzle. For details view the Aboriginal
Karate Program Grading at The Settlement Invite (88KB PDF) or contact
Michael Gravener at The Settlement on 9698 3087 or Linda Crawford at the
AJAC on 9228 8036 if you wish to attend. RSVP by the 14th November for catering
purposes.

A public
meeting at Redfern Community Centre on 29th October came out
strongly in support of Northern Territory Aboriginal Communities. The meeting
endorsed a resolution from a meeting of Aboriginal women from the proscribed
areas of the NT held at Tangentyere on 18th October 2007. The
meeting also urged the federal government to implement the alternative approach
to the Little Children are Sacred Report recommended by the Combined Aboriginal
Organisations of the Northern Territory and urged the federal government to
recognize and engage with the members of the National Aboriginal Alliance as a
national voice for Indigenous peoples.

The
meeting resolved to hold a rally to press these demands and protest the federal
government intervention. The rally will gather on the Block at 10am to support
NT families in their quest for justice and then march to Victoria Park to link
up with the ANTaR celebrations. The Aboriginal community has asked for all
people who are concerned at the Northern Territory Intervention to join with
them in this rally and show your support. For further information contact Shane
Phillips, Millie Ingram, Sol Belair
or Roy Ah-See.

ANTaR NSW will celebrate 10 years of community action in
support of Indigenous people’s rights with a Sea of Hands
event on Sunday 18th November between 11am & 3pm. at Victoria
Park, Parramatta Road,
Camperdown. There will be music, speakers, BBQ or BYO picnic. For further
information www.antar.org.au
or contact Leigh Bowden on 9555 6138, email leigh@antar.org.au if you would like to
help on the day.

The Redfern-Waterloo Authority (RWA) is inviting local
seniors to a luncheon Christmas Party at the Australian Technology
Park on Tuesday 20
November at 12 noon. The luncheon is a free event with free return transport
available from central collection/drop off points in Redfern and Waterloo. For those
considering driving, please note that there is a fee for parking at the ATP.

To reserve your seating, contact reception at the RWA
between 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday on 9202 9100. If you require transport,
please book it when reserving your seat. The luncheon party will be held in the
Dining Room, Australian Technology Park Conference Centre, Bay 4, Locomotive
Street, (entrance off Garden Street) Eveleigh. The RWA would love to see you.
Come and enjoy good food, good company, entertainment and prizes.

The launch of the inaugural Human Rights Arts and Film
Festival is on December 6th at the Chauvel Cinema Paddington. For
more information, visit - www.hraff.org.au. The program starts 7pm
sharp featuring: the very best of HRAFF's short films, installation
artwork direct from The Block, introductions by patrons Justice Michael Kirby
and Ms Margaret Pomeranz as well as a very special performance by Sydney's own Street
Choir! For bookings email festivalfriends@hraff.org.au

The Sydney Opera House and the Balnaves Foundation are
offering $5 tickets to Santa Babies on 13th December at 12pm for Ages 2-5. This
is the last show in the Opera House’s 2007 program and the tickets are
available to concession card holders such as healthcare cards, pensions etc but
not to student card holders. So if you qualify come and sing your favourite
carols and help us decorate our very own Babies Prom Christmas tree. Tickets:
Call the Opera House Booking Line: 9250 7777 and mention the Balnaves $5 Show.
Group Bookings: 02 9250 7812 (Mon-Fri only) or Eva on: 9698 3775 Mondays:
10-2pm.

A couple of recent
stories also caught our attention on the entertainment side. In Hip-hop mob get their own
Redfern recording label we learnt that Redfern Records Entertainment which
bills itself as the first urban and independent Aboriginal record label
leapt into life with a party in Kings Cross. While in Songs in the Keyes of life
there is an insight into Redfern Waterloo song writer and Souths fan Perry
Keyes and his songs.